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VIEWPOINT: Do you offer uncommon customer service?

I was recently in a grocery store and had an enlightening experience about customer service. While I was waiting in line to check out, the clerk, who did her job with competence and precision, asked the elderly gentleman in front of me whether there was anything in his cart he needed help lifting. He said “no” and the transaction continued. The young man who was bagging the groceries asked the elderly customer the same question. Again, the man declined, but…

White River State Park to choose new marketing firm: Attraction’s growing profile lures a slew of bidders

Leaders at White River State Park are winnowing down a field of 18 candidates who want to lead the downtown attraction’s public relations and marketing efforts the next two to three years. Park Executive Director Bob Whitt said a winner has not yet been chosen and declined to comment on the selection process, but industry sources identified three finalists: locally based firms Borshoff and Hirons & Co., and Bandy Carroll Hellige of Louisville. When park officials put out the call…

Ritter’s sets new game plan

The Indianapolis-based parent of the Ritter’s Frozen Custard brand has been stuck in a cold streak lately, facing scores of
new ice-cream competitors and a dwindling lineup of franchisees. But RFC Franchising LLC is planning big changes designed
to firm up the home-grown chain, which now has 48 stores in nine states, down from more than 60 locations in 2005.

Jones calls quid pro quo insinuation ‘ridiculous’

For a preview of how Indiana’s 2008 gubernatorial election will play out, look no further than the emerging tussle over entrepreneur
Scott Jones’ $4 million in awards from the state’s 21st Century Research & Technology Fund.

Roche expertise helped Merck:

Merck & Co. Inc. turned to Roche Diagnostics, which has its North American headquarters in Indianapolis, to help it win regulatory approval in October for its new HIV drug, Isentress. New Jersey-based Merck tested patients during clinical trials with Roche Diagnostics’ viral-load test, called COBAS HIV-1 AMPLICOR. Roche’s HIV-1 viral-load test has been the predominant choice in HIV anti-retroviral clinical drug trials since 1996. Merck’s new drug is an integrase inhibitor, which prevents replication of HIV by blocking insertion of…

Niche firms thrive despite anonymity: Some small businesses don’t need storefronts to keep customers coming

Whimsical Whisk isn’t your neighborhood bakery. Pastry chef Clare Welage never wanted it to be. She started the patisserie in 2004 with plans to differentiate herself from the competition by making desserts from scratch using all-natural ingredients, designing items specifically for the customer and-just as important-going without a storefront. “I’ve always felt that if you open up a storefront and you have a specialty product, something somewhere gets compromised,” Welage said. “Ultimately, it’s the quality of the product or it’s…

Commentary: Of Blue Cross and Blue Chip

WellPoint CEO Angela Braly must be thinking to herself, “Enough with the most powerful and influential stuff already!” In the course of the last several months, Braly has been named the 16th-most-powerful woman in the world-that’s in the world-by Forbes magazine, one of the 19 mostinfluential women in central Indiana by IBJ, and the top woman to watch by the Wall Street Journal. That’s heady stuff, to be sure, but I know for a fact that her two school-age daughters…

Acquisitions fuel growth for Consona: Former Made2Manage roars back after struggling as public company

Building Consona Corp. into a billion-dollar company is well within the sights of CEO Jeff Tognoni. But for now, he’s content with a recent growth spurt that is earning national recognition. Indianapolis-based Consona, formerly known as M2M Holdings Inc., grew at a clip of 131.4 percent last year, landing it on Software Magazine’s annual list of the 10 fastest-growing software firms in the nation. While Tognoni is proud of the achievement, he’s reticent to toot the company horn too loudly….

Feds eliminate quirky price-fixing rule for interstate movers

Interstate moving companies have operated for decades under industrywide price fixing blessed by the federal government. But
the system–one Tony Soprano and the boys in the back room of Bada Bing would love–will end Dec. 31, ushering in price cuts
and other changes that could affect the cost of a move.

INVESTING: Signs point to strong rally in agricultural commodities

The biggest stories of 2007 have been oil’s relentless rise and China’s growing presence on the world stage. These two are obviously related, as energy needs in China help push oil prices higher. But things move in cycles, and as the world economies slow down and U.S. stocks move into a bear market, there is another way to play these two stories that should continue to dominate our lives the next five years. The next several years could be characterized…

SPORTS: Purdue, IU athletic directors have a lot to chew on

I’m not an athletic director, but I do get to play one in IBJ. So play along with me: Purdue University should keep Joe Tiller as its football coach. Indiana University should do likewise with Bill Lynch. Add this to what I’m sure is plenty of unsolicited advice directed at Morgan Burke and Rick Greenspan, the respective athletic directors at Purdue and Indiana. They can thank me later. Of course, by the time you read this, the futures of both…

Lottery vs. local ad firms

The Hoosier Lottery has rejected all bids for the creative part of its advertising account. Most of the bidders were local, and the agencies involved are miffed that they were passed over.

In this weekend’s IBJ, reporter Anthony Schoettle quotes…

Anthem loses disclosure fight

The Blue Cross and Blue Shield plan that Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc. operates in Connecticut has backed
out of managing part of an insurance program rather than disclose the rates it pays doctors and its approach
to denying prescription drug payments….

WellPoint unit withdraws over disclosure rift

WellPoint Inc.’s subsidiary in Connecticut will lose its contract to manage part of a $700 million insurance program for that state’s poor children and their parents after the Indianapolis health insurer repeatedly refused to disclose information about its practices, the Hartford Courant reports. WellPoint’s Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Connecticut threatened to cancel […]

Covance buys partially built Lilly plant

An insulin manufacturing plant that Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co. began building in Prince William County, Va., has been acquired by Covance Inc. for an undisclosed price. Lilly announced in January that it had stopped construction because insulin demand wasn’t as high as anticipated. Covance, a drug development services company headquartered in Princeton, N.J., said […]

Good news for housing market?

Local homeowners tired of all the bad news about the housing market likely will be encouraged by data in a recent Fortune Magazine article. The magazine studied the correlation…

Wood-Mizer finishes sale to employees

A shift in ownership of Wood-Mizer Products Inc. to its employees was completed Nov. 16 when employees acquired remaining shares in the Indianapolis manufacturer of portable sawmills. Co-founders Don Laskowski and Dan Tekulve sold 53.9 percent of Wood-Mizer to an employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP, in June 2004. The ESOP bought a small percentage […]

Unions gaining, losing ground

Unions are experiencing mixed results.

The United Auto Workers lost clout during negotiations with Detroit car companies this year.

Yet, the Service Employees International Union is forcing janitorial firms to the table in Indianapolis, Cincinnati
and other cities. And workers at Casino…

Three companies to create 152 jobs in Angola

The northeastern Indiana town of Angola will see three companies expand or open new operations-creating a total of 152 jobs by 2010, according to the Indiana Economic Development Corp. Supreme Building Technologies, a start-up builder specializing in small modular buildings for the food and beverage industry, plans to make an existing facility home to its […]

Brightpoint buys 9 percent of rival

Brightpoint Inc. said in a new regulatory filing that it invested $7.3 million to acquire a 9.1-percent stake in Maryland-based TESSCO Technologies Inc. TESSCO competes with Plainfield-based Brightpoint in the wireless-phone logistics business. In a press release, Brightpoint said it purchased 470,000 shares of TESSCO because “it believes that the shares are currently undervalued in […]